Loans

Loans

Southern California University of Health Sciences participates in the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program

William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program

A federal student loan, made through the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, for which eligible students and parents borrow directly from the U.S. Department of Education at participating schools. Direct Subsidized Loans, Direct Unsubsidized Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and Direct Consolidation Loans are types of Direct Loans. Additional information on Federal Direct Loans is available from the following Department of Education resources:

Direct Subsidized Loans are loans made to eligible undergraduate students who demonstrate financial need to help cover the costs of higher education at a college or career school.

Direct Unsubsidized Loans are loans made to eligible undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, but in this case, the student does not have to demonstrate financial need to be eligible for the loan.

Direct PLUS Loans are loans made to graduate or professional students and parents of dependent undergraduate students to help pay for education expenses not covered by other financial aid.

Direct Consolidation Loans allow you to combine all of your eligible federal student loans into a single loan with a single loan servicer.

Application Procedures

To apply for a Federal Student Loan you will need to complete the four steps below:

Step 1: Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using SCU’s federal code 001229.
The FAFSA is available on October 1 at no cost to students. You will be considered for Pell Grant, and Federal Direct Loans and Work-Study awards.
Web Address: https://www.fafsa.ed.gov

If you are completing entrance counseling to borrow a loan as an undergraduate student, then the entrance counseling will fulfill counseling requirements for Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans.

If you are completing entrance counseling to borrow a loan as a graduate or professional student, the entrance counseling will fulfill counseling requirements for Direct Subsidized Loans, Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and Direct PLUS Loans.

Entrance counseling is required to be completed before you receive your first federal student loan. Entrance Counseling explains your responsibilities and rights as a student borrower.

The Master Promissory Note is a binding legal document that you must sign when you get a federal student loan. The MPN can be used to make one or more loans for one or more academic years (up to 10 years). It lists the terms and conditions under which you agree to repay the loan and explain your rights and responsibilities as a borrower. It’s important to read and save your MPN because you’ll need to refer to it later when you begin repaying your loan or at other times when you need information about provisions of the loan, such as deferments or forbearances.

Step 4: Create an FSA ID using the following web address https://fsaid.ed.gov/npas/index.htm
Students, parents, and borrowers are required to use an FSA ID, made up of a username and password, to access certain U.S. Department of Education websites. Your FSA ID is used to confirm your identity when accessing your financial aid information and electronically signing your federal student aid documents. If you are a parent of a dependent student, you will need your own FSA ID if you want to sign your child’s FAFSA electronically. If you have more than one child attending college, you can use the same FSA ID to sign all applications. Please note: Each FSA ID user must have a unique e-mail address. Your FSA ID is used to sign legally binding documents electronically. It has the same legal status as a written signature.

Eligibility Criteria

When discussing a student’s eligibility for financial aid, we refer to requirements a student must meet and to the amount of aid the student is eligible to receive. This page explains requirements for receiving federal need-based financial aid and how we determine the amount of aid. Eligible students receive financial aid at the beginning of each term.

Federal Eligibility Requirements

The federal government is the primary source of financial aid for college students. Students must meet the following requirements to be eligible for federal aid:

Have financial need and demonstrate it through their financial aid application. (Some loans and scholarships are available to students without need.)

Be accepted for enrollment or enrolled at least half-time and working toward a degree or certificate. Students may apply for aid before being accepted or enrolled.

Be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-U.S. citizen with a valid Social Security number.

Be registered with the U.S. Selective Service, if required. To check your registration status go to: https://www.sss.gov/

Make Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) toward a degree or certificate program. Satisfactory Academic Progress, or SAP, is a federal regulation requiring the Financial Aid Office to monitor the progress of each student who is receiving financial aid as they move toward completing their degree or certificate.

Students, who fall behind in their coursework, fail to achieve minimum standards for grade point average or fail to complete classes in a maximum time frame, may lose eligibility for all types of federal, and university aid.

Use aid only for educational purposes.

Not owe a refund on a federal grant or be in default on any federal educational loan.

Enroll for coursework that is accepted for credit by your degree-granting program.

Attend all classes for which you enroll. If you fail a class and did not attend or participate, your financial aid could be adjusted. (Note that instructors report non-participation if a student receives a failing grade.)

Students who are enrolled at more than one college or university at the same time may receive aid from only one institution. For more information, contact us.

A student who has a drug conviction felony record may not be eligible to receive federal student aid.

Non-citizens and or International Student may qualify for private, University and or merit based aid.

How much aid are you eligible to receive?

Financial aid programs were created with the idea that the primary responsibility for paying college costs rests with the student and family. Your aid eligibility depends on your family’s financial circumstances and resources.

When you complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the federal government uses information you supply to assess your family’s financial situation and calculate an expected family contribution, or EFC, for you. Your EFC is an estimate of how much a student and parents might be expected to contribute toward the education costs. It is not the amount you owe to a college or university.

More about Your Expected Family Contribution

Your estimated/expected family contribution (EFC) is made up of two parts:

Parent Contribution: an estimate of what your parents might be able to pay toward your college costs for the year. Allowances for living expenses (based on family size), taxes paid, and the number of siblings in college and asset protection for retirement are built into the formula. It is based on both parents’ income and assets (cash, checking, savings, money market accounts, investments, real estate holdings and business equity).

Student Contribution: an estimate of what you might be able to contribute toward college costs for the year. It is based on your income and a percentage of your savings and other assets.

Once your EFC has been determined, the amount of federal, state, and institutional need-based aid you are eligible to receive is calculated using this equation:

Your cost of attendance includes estimated amounts for tuition and fees, books and supplies and room and board, plus a modest allowance for personal/miscellaneous expenses. From this, we subtract your EFC and other resources such as private scholarships or gifts that are not part of your family’s income and assets.

The result is your eligibility for need-based aid or demonstrated financial need. While this number represents the amount of aid you are eligible to receive based on costs and your resources, the amount of aid that you will receive depends on aid funds available in any given year.

The Financial Aid Office distributes need-based grant, scholarship, loan, and Work-Study funds equitably among all eligible applicants who apply for financial aid by established deadline dates. Award amounts are determined by a combination of demonstrated financial need, federal award maximums, available funding and other factors.

How we Award Need Based Aid

Here’s how we determine your demonstrated need: Your Cost of attendance at SCU for one academic year minus your expected family contribution (EFC) and other financial resources equals your demonstrated need (eligibility) for need-based financial aid. SCU awards financial aid funds in the following order to eligible students:

Federal and state need-based grants and scholarships

Federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized (Stafford) Loans

Work-Study funds (Federal regulations require these funds to be awarded to students with the greatest need)

Students who need additional funds to cover expenses and those who are not eligible for need-based aid may consider supplemental loans such as the federal Direct PLUS Loan and/or private education loans. These require separate applications.

Exit Counseling

Is a mandatory information session which explains your loan repayment responsibilities and when repayment of your loan begins. Federal regulations require that all student loan borrowers must have an exit interview/exit counseling after students graduate or your attendance at SCU is less than half-time. Students may access and complete the exit counseling at www.studentloans.gov. This will satisfy all requirements for exit counseling and give the borrower up to date information on their student loan balances. This is the fastest and easiest way to satisfy this requirement.

Private Student Loans

Students taking classes at SCU are eligible to apply for private student loans. Private student loans are available to both students and parents who need assistance with education costs.

A private loan is not a federal student loan, but one through a private bank or other lending institution. Private student loans are credit-based funding provided by outside, nonfederal lenders to help cover educational costs.

To review and compare some private loan products and begin the application process, you will be directed to the Great Lakes FAST Choice webpage.

Fast Choice is a private loan application system. At Fast Choice, students and parents are able to search, compare, and apply for private loans. The lenders listed at Fast Choice have offered quality customer service to our students in the past and we expect the same service in the future. They also offer competitive interest rates and lower fees.

We strongly encourage you to review each of the lender’s information to determine which benefits and terms are best for you.

Take into consideration repayment terms, interest rates, and deferment options before choosing a private loan. Some lenders may require a co-signer for credit reasons. For students who apply through a lender on the Fast Choice website, the loan funds will be disbursed electronically, allowing for an efficient process for the borrower and the school.

First Step

See instructions and table below to calculate Cost of Education (COA)
To apply for loan go to https://choice.fastproducts.org/FastChoice/home/122900
You may be asked to provide your college/university school name and 8-digit school code. School name: Southern California University of Health Sciences School code: 0012290

After completing the loan application, please contact or send an e-mail to our financial aid department to confirm that your application has been approved or denied. Email: [email protected] or Call 562 -947-8755- ext – 766.

In order for the Student Loan office to certify the loan:

The loan application must be approved

The IOS/SCU application has been submitted

Your class schedule has been created

Helpful Things to Remember About Requesting a Private Education Loan

We advise you to apply for your private loan 4 weeks before your first course starts. This time frame allows for the lenders’ 10 day right to cancel period, class schedules to be created, and lenders to pay the tuition and preparation of any expected living expense reimbursement from the loan.

Code of Conduct For Private Education Loans

Introduction

The Higher Education Act requires Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCU) to develop, administer, and enforce a code of conduct with respect to private education loans. This addresses standards of business for the working relationships between college officials and private loan lenders.

A private education loan is any loan that is not made under Title IV of the HEA and is issued to a borrower expressly for postsecondary education expenses, regardless of whether the loan is provided through the institution that the student attends or directly to the borrower from the lender.

Revenue-sharing Arrangements with Any Lender

SCU will not enter into any revenue-sharing arrangement with any lender. Specifically, the institution will not recommend a lender or loan products of a lender in exchange for a fee or other material benefit, including revenue or profit sharing.

Gifts

No agent for SCU who is employed in the Financial Aid Office or who has responsibilities with private education loans may solicit or accept any prohibited gift from a lending institution. Prohibited gifts include: any gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment (including expenses for shows, sporting events, or alcoholic beverages), hospitality (including private parties of select training or conference attendees), loan, or other item having a monetary value of more than a de minimus amount. A gift includes services, transportation, lodging or meals whether provided in kind, by purchase of a ticket, payment in advance, or reimbursement after the expense has been incurred.

An agent of the institution may accept items of a de minimus amount from a private education lender that are offered as general marketing or advertising or to create good will. Examples of de minimus gifts include, but are not limited to: pens or pencils, notepads, sticky-notes, rulers, calculators, small tote bags, calendars, and other office supply items.

Philanthropic Gifts and Contributions to the Institution

SCU will not accept any philanthropic contributions from a lending institution that are related to the loans that are provided to our students, or that is provided to gain an advantage related to private education loans. In addition, we will not accept scholarships or grants from a private lending institution in exchange for loan applications or referrals for applications, or for a specific volume or dollar amount of private loans received.

SCU may accept philanthropic contributions from a lender that are not related to the loans provided to our students, or that is not provided in exchange to receive an advantage related to private education loans.

Consulting or Other Contractual Arrangements

An agent of the institution who is employed at SCU and/or has direct responsibilities with the private education loan programs may not accept from any lending institution any compensation for any type of consulting arrangement or other contract to provide services to or on behalf of the lender. An agent of the institution can be permitted to engage in these consulting activities as long as they are not employed in the Financial Aid Office or as long as they do not have direct responsibilities related to private education loans.

Choice of Lender

Agents of the institution will not:

Assign the student’s loan to a particular lender

Encourage or influence the student to choose a specific lender

Show preference for one lender over another

Refuse to certify, or cause delays in loan processing for a borrower based on their choice of lender

Opportunity Pools

For purposes of this document, an opportunity pool is defined as a private education loan made by a lender to a student attending this institution or the student’s family member that involves the SCU paying points, premiums, additional interest, or financial support to the lender for the purpose of that lender extending credit to the borrower.

The institution will not request or accept an offer of funds from an opportunity to be used for private education loans.

Staffing Assistance

The institution will not request or accept from any lender any assistance with call center staffing or financial aid office staffing.

Advisory Board Compensation

An agent for the institution with direct private education loan responsibilities may not accept anything of value in exchange for service on an advisory board established by a lending institution. If an agent of the institution without private education loan responsibilities does serve on an advisory board established by a lending institution, the agent may accept compensation for reasonable expenses incurred by that service.

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